Cyber Monday sales spur early surge in 2009 traffic

According to the Web analytics firm Akamai, Cyber Monday traffic has already increased by 43 percent over last year. Analysts credit the Cyber Monday growth in part to some savvy use of Facebook and Twitter.

Cyber Monday traffic is set to grow by 43 percent in 2010, as 4 million users per minute jostle elbow-to-elbow for the latest online deal. That's the news from Akamai, an Internet tracking firm, which released a report earlier today showing a surge in visits to sites such as QVC.com, eBags.com, and Overstock.com.

Meanwhile, several analysts have released reports from Black Friday, and the news is similarly rosy. Retail spending rose to $595 million in 2010, up 11 percent over last year, according to comScore. As for total online retail, between the dates of Nov. 1 and Nov. 27, Web retailers unloaded $10.6 billion of stock in 2009, compared to $10.3 billion in 2008.